Grace Ma has had an impressive last four months. She joined the Department of Medicine operations group as its finance and grants management specialist and also trained for the New York City Marathon, which is a World Marathon Majors (WMM) race. Entry for WWM series races is very selective, and Grace waited almost two years for a spot, completing nine qualifying races in 2017 before earning a place in the 2018 competition.

Once accepted, she began preparing mentally and physically, but says she didn’t have a specific training schedule. Instead, she built upon her already established running habit, a weekly routine consisting of four runs of at least five miles each. Three months prior to the marathon – and just shortly after starting her job at Stanford – she increased training frequency to six times weekly. And one month prior to the race, she extended her distance to 12- to 18-mile runs.

Grace’s approach paid off as she logged a personal record of four hours and 27 minutes on race day. She sums up her race experience as “amazing and unforgettable!” Although she was no stranger to running 26 miles – finishing her first marathon in Nagoya, Japan in March 2018 – Grace emphasizes that as a former New York City resident this race was particularly special.

Way to go, Grace!